Feb 5, 2016

Here is a quick read about how to "Spend Time at Your Local Bar to Build Community and Your Own Happiness." Researchers at Oxford’s Department of Experimental Psychology explain there are social benefits to being a regular at a small local bar. LINK

Nov 2, 2012

Our 13th president, Millard Fillmore
refused an honorary degree from the University of Oxford on the
basis that he was not classically educated and so could not read the
diploma, written in Latin. He said, “No man should accept a degree
he cannot read.”

He is contrasted with James Garfield, who could write Latin with his
left hand while simultaneously writing Greek with his right.

Oct 19, 2010

William Archibald Spooner has the dubious distinction of having the linguistic phenomenon known as a “spoonerism” named after him.

A spoonerism involves the accidental (or sometimes intentional) swapping of letters, words, or vowels in a sentence – for example: “Go and shake a tower” (meaning “go and take a shower”). Spooner was a professor at Oxford and he became so famous for his spoonerisms that people would attend his lectures just to hear him make a mistake. He was not pleased about the great publicity that surrounded him, but as he neared death his attitude softened and he gave interviews to the press. Spooner once wrote to a fellow professor to ask him to come immediately to help solve a problem. At the end of the letter he added a post-script that the matter had been resolved and he needn’t come.

Some spoonerisms attributed to Spooner are: “Mardon me padam, this pie is occupewed. Can I sew you to another sheet?” (Pardon me, madam, this pew is occupied. Can I show you to another seat?)
“Let us glaze our asses to the queer old Dean” (…raise our glasses to the dear old Queen)
“We’ll have the hags flung out” (…flags hung out).

Sep 24, 2010

Jack Russell was a real guy. John Russell was born in Dartmouth, England in 1795, and over the years he became quite a hunting enthusiast. While he was studying to become a clergyman at Oxford, he met a milkman who had a white terrier bitch named Trump who seemed to be the perfect dog for fox hunting. After convincing the milkman to sell him the dog, Russell began breeding Trump to develop a line of terriers with the stamina to hunt foxes all day and the courage to go after game that had slipped into holes.